Ambition in question

[brendywendy]

This week I have heard the following:

BMcD saying none of the money from the sale of Mills will be made available to him for new signings. Balancing the books is first and foremost.

Matt Mills stating:

“Now is about looking forward and this is the start of a new chapter for me. I am really excited to be here and hopefully go one step further than last year.”
&
“Obviously, I have received stick since I moved, but at the end of the day people don’t know what goes on behind the scenes, they just see the move."

Whilst I appreciate football is mostly about business and balancing books these days, I am worried that RFC seem to be more concerned with this than success on the pitch. As long as we do not go down, what we achieve on the pitch is a bonus.

I can understand the balancing act that the club faces here, but as a fan I question the clubs ambition to REALLY succeed. I feel like we are facing years of mediocrity in this league unless we find a new owner with very deep pockets.

you dont need to question it....it doesnt exist

it does, it simply doesnt match yours.

[brendywendy]

Umm two seasons in the prem is " massive success"...ok. Lets not go overboard here.

LOL_FFS_OMG_ETC

[brendywendy]

In 2004-2005 ssc was allowed to bring in a number of players, some cheaply like hunt n sonko but the board also took chances and gave money for ivar, kitson and most notably lita.. Now our board seem to think they can do exactly the same with kids. I am beginning to think sjm has been scared by our experience in the prem and is happy to be a second league team. It gives him just the right amount of media without costing him too much

moneys payed for anyone except lita are comparable to what we spend now.
and i think we over payed for him.

[brendywendy]

reading football club's ambition isn't in question, it's the chairman's that has changed since he realised the expense of being a premier league football club. it's above him and now it's all about paying off as much of the loans he has given the club while there's value in players to do so.

No, it's not - it's about not having to take out further loans to fund the existence of this club; truth is all the clubs outspending us are doing just that. That's not the way SJM wants to run this club and fair enough to him. Anyone claiming that he is trying to make money out of the club is way off the mark.

especialluy as up to the last set of accounts hed not taken a penny back from those loans

[brendywendy]

Ambition best summed up after the play-off final when Mr Chairman spouted his "Championship more exciting than the Prem anyway" line immediately after the final whistle sounded at Wembley. He only just stopped short of pumping his fist in the air at the end of 90 minutes.

Yeah, John, I'll remember how exciting the Championship is in 6 weeks time when I am watching us struggling to break down Barnsley.

support wigan then.
its exciting enough to keep me, and at least 15000 others coming back.
i think many here would agree that championship football>>>>>2nd prem season

[FiNeRaIn]

This is not the first time players have left complaining about what goes on behind the scene's, I remember darren o'dea doing the same thing and getting crap for it, gylfi is sad to have been annoyed at getting forced out and now mills too, there is a pattern emerging here...but of course the RTG's will have you believe they are all idiots and its all nonsense.

[andrew1957]

I found the Gylfi sale very annoying because I thought (and still think) it was a short sighted decision, but in the case of Mills as he refused to sign a new contract the club had little choice but to cash in and if I had been running the club I would do the same.

However, the mark of ambition will be who we sign. I fully expect us to sign a least one and preferably two experienced centre backs to replace Mills/Khiz and Ingi. If we do not then I think we do have every right to be very disappointed ........ but there are two months yet to bring in replacements so no point in accusing the club of lack of ambition until after 1st Sept.

[Alan Partridge]

I don't know whats more boring, all these threads on the same thing or brendywendy replying to every post on every thread kissing the clubs arse.

And all this over Matt Mills? A truly average defender with about 2 braincells and your typical modern day over paid mercenary player whose never achieved anything in the game and gives it the bertie big bollocks. Couldn't care less if i never see him play again.

[Focher]

you should really have copied and paste the same thread thats come up on here since 2004, either that or it shouldnt have been allowed to drop off the board.

Its painful reading m8s

[FiNeRaIn]

I don't know whats more boring, all these threads on the same thing or brendywendy replying to every post on every thread kissing the clubs arse.

And all this over Matt Mills? A truly average defender with about 2 braincells and your typical modern day over paid mercenary player whose never achieved anything in the game and gives it the bertie big bollocks. Couldn't care less if i never see him play again.

Great post, fully agreed.

[Ian Royal]

This is not the first time players have left complaining about what goes on behind the scene's, I remember darren o'dea doing the same thing and getting crap for it, gylfi is sad to have been annoyed at getting forced out and now mills too, there is a pattern emerging here...but of course the RTG's will have you believe they are all idiots and its all nonsense.

How was Mills forced out!? We offered him an improved contract which he refused! He didn't have to sign for Leicester, no one held a gun to his head.

Gylfi being sad to leave doesn't mean he didn't want to move to Heffeheim. You can be sad to leave a place and still be the one making a decision that you will move.

[Top Flight]

Football fans from up and down the country are all having this discussion.

From Arsenal to Reading, from Pompey to Newcastle, From Plymouth to Hull.............Ambition is in question!

Just got to make do with the resources that are at our disposal. A top drawer manager can get Reading in the Premier League under the limitations and restrictions of the job. There are some jobs where these restrictions are even more limiting and managers have won promotion to the big time. I'm sure Blackpool and Burnley were operating with even less resources at their disposal prior to their own elevations to the top tier.

Coppell didn't have alot to work with but still achieved great success.

If McDermott is a legendary manager and if his support team (Hammond, Gibbs etc.) are exceptionally talented then promotion is a real possibility. We never expected the players that Coppell brought into the club would have the calibre to take us up. Who thought Doyle, Hunt, Sonko etc. were gonna be the signings that take Reading to the Premier League? You would never have expected it.

We just have to stop worrying about the finances and start supporting the team to glory.

[FiNeRaIn]

This is not the first time players have left complaining about what goes on behind the scene's, I remember darren o'dea doing the same thing and getting crap for it, gylfi is sad to have been annoyed at getting forced out and now mills too, there is a pattern emerging here...but of course the RTG's will have you believe they are all idiots and its all nonsense.

How was Mills forced out!? We offered him an improved contract which he refused! He didn't have to sign for Leicester, no one held a gun to his head.

Gylfi being sad to leave doesn't mean he didn't want to move to Heffeheim. You can be sad to leave a place and still be the one making a decision that you will move.

I didn't say mills was forced out? I meant mills is now making noises about the circumstances in what goes on behind the scene's, much like o'dea.

[Ian Royal]

This is not the first time players have left complaining about what goes on behind the scene's, I remember darren o'dea doing the same thing and getting crap for it, gylfi is sad to have been annoyed at getting forced out and now mills too, there is a pattern emerging here...but of course the RTG's will have you believe they are all idiots and its all nonsense.

How was Mills forced out!? We offered him an improved contract which he refused! He didn't have to sign for Leicester, no one held a gun to his head.

Gylfi being sad to leave doesn't mean he didn't want to move to Heffeheim. You can be sad to leave a place and still be the one making a decision that you will move.

I didn't say mills was forced out? I meant mills is now making noises about the circumstances in what goes on behind the scene's, much like o'dea.

[FiNeRaIn]

Poorly constructed sentence possibly, I meant to tie the mills bit to o'dea who wasn't forced out but implied there were issues behind the scene's.

[Ian Royal]

There we go then, a note to those who use text speak or ignore punctuation (frimmers); poorly constructed sentences lead to problems.

O'Dea was here during Rodgers time. There obviously were behind the scenes problems. I still don't think anyone's shown anything close to Gylfi being forced out.

I'll side with the ever reliable McDermott and Hammond over the unreliable Mills spouting off some veiled, but ultimately meaningless comment on Twitter any day of the week.

[Harpers So Solid Crew]

Can you elaborate on these behind the scenes rumours?

[Svlad Cjelli]

FFS - different people in different parts of the club have been saying things in public. They're not all controlled and there's no official "message" - so no wonder some people have been saying different things and giving out different messages, according to their individual roles and their state of mind at the time.

Please, don't take literally and try to over-analyse everything said by people in the club or reported as being from them - that way madness lies.

[FiNeRaIn]

There we go then, a note to those who use text speak or ignore punctuation (frimmers); poorly constructed sentences lead to problems.

O'Dea was here during Rodgers time. There obviously were behind the scenes problems. I still don't think anyone's shown anything close to Gylfi being forced out.

I'll side with the ever reliable McDermott and Hammond over the unreliable Mills spouting off some veiled, but ultimately meaningless comment on Twitter any day of the week.

What has o'dea being here during rodgers time have to do with anything, that's an utterly idiot comment..the board and other behind the scene's personnel are exactly the same. What you are really saying is you disagree with both of them and are calling them both liars.

[Ian Royal]

There we go then, a note to those who use text speak or ignore punctuation (frimmers); poorly constructed sentences lead to problems.

O'Dea was here during Rodgers time. There obviously were behind the scenes problems. I still don't think anyone's shown anything close to Gylfi being forced out.

I'll side with the ever reliable McDermott and Hammond over the unreliable Mills spouting off some veiled, but ultimately meaningless comment on Twitter any day of the week.

What has o'dea being here during rodgers time have to do with anything, that's an utterly idiot comment..the board and other behind the scene's personnel are exactly the same. What you are really saying is you disagree with both of them and are calling them both liars.

I disagree with you. I'm not calling anyone a liar. Show me which statement from a player I've said is a lie. And I don't mean some paraphrased interpretation of their comment. My comment about Rodgers time is not idiotic, we all know there were problems between him and Mills, and its very likely there were problems between him and Howe. Howe's not caused any problems or disruption for any other manager, so it's clear that it was about Rodgers time and performance.